The Girls: The gripping Richard and Judy Book Club pick

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As the daughter of a librarian Jen's love of books started from a very early age. Her reading obsession continued throughout her teenage years when she studied both English Language and English Literature at college. My b but I ruined the buddy read with Karly and SabiReads by binging the entire book in one night LOL.

Roan Fours is a Child Psychologist, his wife Cate is a Physiologist. They have two teenage kids and are a seemingly happy family. Okay, sure, in a perfect world, it would end differently- but that’s what made Jewell’s decision so provocative. I thought it was fitting to leave the reader feeling unsettled. It almost felt like Jewell spent a fair amount of time throwing out red herrings and creating possible suspects, only to get tired of her own book and decide to just wrap things up and close it.

Seventeen-year-old, Saffyre Maddox often has dark thoughts that frighten her. Something happened when she was ten-years-old. Something that changed her. She started seeing a child psychologist named Roan Fours when she was twelve. She saw him for three years. Roan Fours felt that Saffyre made great progress, but she disagreed. Most of the time, Saffyre feels invisible. She likes being invisible because she can collect more secrets that way. But if those secrets got out, many lives would be changed. This is another winner for Lisa Jewell!! The story held my rapt attention from start to finish! The exploration of the darker corners of the internet was chilling. Although, the atmosphere was not as heavy as Jewell’s previous novels, I thought the story was extremely creepy! The once picturesque house is now impenetrable, filled with useless baubles, piles of hoarding and towers of newspapers. As she enters the house, Meg begins to recall her childhood days and how their house used to be one of the best in Cotswold. Meg also recalls one Easter Sunday where the extended Birds clan came together for Easter Egg hunts. Set in London, this is a story about a close-knit community surrounding a central 3-acre park, complete with a playground, rose garden, even a secret garden. Many of the people who live here have known each other for a lifetime, since they were children, and many have stayed in this same neighborhood until adulthood, now raising their own children here as well. So the children of friends are now friends themselves, playing the same games in the same park as their parents did.

Then she cries out and clutches at her chest when a figure appears at her side. it is Max, the football mad loner of the community. He's only nine, three years younger than her. She can't believe he's still out here, wandering alone at this time of night. As ever, he is holding his beloved football, squeezing it tight against his stomach. he looks at Pip, his eyes wide and appalled. He looks as though he's about to say something, but no words come. He turns then and runs, down the hill, toward the lights. Although the suspense is right at that sweet spot throughout, I felt there were a few unanswered questions by the end and was a tad underwhelmed by the abrupt ending. However, when her thirteen-year-old daughter Grace is found unconscious in the gardens with her clothes in disarray, Clare soon starts to realise things may not be as idyllic as they seem. The Girls Lisa Jewell Book Review: My Opinion Although, we wouldn’t say that this was a nail-biting thriller it was the way that the story was told and the drama within that really grabbed our attention. Would recommend! Saffyre Maddox, in treatment for self-harm, is released by her therapist, Roan Fours, before she’s ready. This leads her to stalk him and spy on his family.However, the idea of hiding scars and trauma was such a powerful theme, as well as the anguish, suffering, and distress felt by many but hidden and ‘invisible’ to the people around them. The theme continued with the offenders as invisible aggressors and how they can remain undetected in society and even within their own family units. Police investigate and Leo becomes a prime suspect. Adele begins to question everything she thought she knew about her husband – and even about their three daughters.

This book felt so dark, foreboding, and hopeless. I wanted to keep reading but I felt like nothing good was going to happen, I didn't see how anything could get better, anything could improve, or anyone could ever be happy. This book was bringing me down but I was enjoying it. Finding all of the Lisa Jewell books is not the easiest task. Believe it or not, many of the books have different names when published in the US vs. the UK. They also have different publication dates. Then, there is the Fours family. They live across the street from Owen. They have always been suspicious of their neighbor from across the way. This story is told from three perspectives. A man loses his memory and is trying to figure out who he is. Simultaneously, a woman can’t find her husband who has disappeared without a trace. The moral to the story is poignant and powerful which I liked. The subject matter was challenging, yet some of the messages were subtle. Things like the little red fox making the occasional appearance heightened the level of suspense and created moments of reflection in the story.

You feel like you know the (always quirky) characters, because they are well developed, BUT you also know that behind that Cup of Joe, or behind those closed blinds, are people with secrets that you are hoping to coax out of them. When Saffrye Maddox goes missing on Valentine's Day night, many believe the sexual predator has escalated from groping in alleys to potentially kidnapping, or worse.